Officials Seek Solution To Lacamas Lake Pollution

CAMAS, Clark County - Animal waste, storm water tainted with oil, herbicides and pesticides, and sediment from construction sites all flow downhill into Lacamas Lake.

And despite the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been spent to clean it up, the lake remains one of the most polluted in Washington.

"It's very difficult to go back and correct once it has happened," said Allen Moore, the Lacamas Restoration Project manager for the state Department of Ecology.

"There are things going on in the watershed that need to be controlled. It doesn't make sense to waste taxpayers' money if other things are constantly undoing the cleanup effort."

A lake's healthiness is measured partly by the presence of nutrients and oxygen. Crystal-clear Lake Chelan in north-central Washington, for example, is an oligotrophic lake - very low in nutrients and high in oxygen. Lots of oxygen is needed for fish and other organisms to thrive.

Lacamas Lake is what's known as a eutrophic lake - high in nutrients and algae, low in oxygen and, historically, one of the worst in the state.

When the Ecology Department surveyed 85 lakes in the state in 1993, Lacamas Lake did poorly:

-- Water clarity: fifth worst.

-- Nutrients (phosphorus): seventh worst.

-- Algae count (chlorophyll A): third worst.

"It's way above where even a badly degraded lake should be," Moore said.

The lake also is tested regularly for fecal pollution. So far

this year, the lake is considered clean enough for swimming and other recreation.

Fish survive because the lake is stocked with species that can live with the lower oxygen levels and warmer temperatures, such as brown trout, bass and perch.

Attempts to clean up the lake - Clark County's largest and a favorite with waterskiers and bass anglers - began 14 years ago.

Today, some landowners voluntarily follow "best management practices" designed to minimize stormwater and animal pollution. Owners pay for 25 percent of the improvements. The state pays the rest.

Now, the state says, the city of Camas and Clark County need to make such practices mandatory and set limits, for example, on how many animals can be on hobby farms.

Moore suggests the two governments look at the agreement between King County and the cities of Redmond, Issaquah and Bellevue that was made to clean up Lake Sammamish.

The cost is about $2 million a year, and two inspectors have the authority to halt development that doesn't follow the rules.

"It's the most effective method I've seen anywhere," Moore said. "There's constant surveillance, and it doesn't always have to be from the jurisdictions. A well-informed public can watch and make sure not only are they doing the right things, but others are as well."

Steven Hall, Clark County's water-quality manager, said work will not begin on a watershed plan for Lacamas Lake for another two years, and more rigid guidelines for people living and working within the lake's 43,000-acre watershed won't be implemented anytime soon.

It took nearly four years for the agreement between King County and the three cities around Lake Sammamish to be worked out, and there's no reason to think Camas and Clark County could pull one together any faster.

Camas Councilwoman Gwen Hahn, who serves on the Lacamas Lake Policy Committee, would like to see the city and the county working on a plan soon.

"The problem is very real, and it's not going to go away," she said.